Aruba Happy Flow Pilot Project a complete success!

ORANJESTAD – During the results presentation of the first phase of the roadmap EU-preclearance and in the presence of Minister of Justice Mr. Arthur Dowers, Minister of Economic Affairs and Communication Mr. Richard Arends, Mr. Jos Nijhuis CEO Schiphol Group, Mr. Rob Melchiot VP International Stations KLM and other guests, Mr. James Fazio, CEO Aruba Airport Authority N.V. (AAA) was very satisfied with the completion of the 2 year pilot project: "Two years ago, together with the Government of Aruba and the Netherlands, Schiphol Group, KLM and Vision Box we launched an innovative plan with anambitious goal, unique in the world: Develop an innovative passenger process with facial recognition where the passenger can go from check-in to boarding the plane without showinga passport again: Secure, fast and safe ! Today, I can proudly report that the pilot has been completed successfully. The Aruba Happy Flow system proved to be a highly flexible and future-proof system based on access control, identity management and end-to-end monitoring.”

The award winning Aruba Happy Flow Pilot Project combines the public process of bordercontrol with the private passenger process at the airport. This is unique in the world and was designed to streamline the passenger process, making it fast and secure. Passenger privacy is guaranteed due to the Privacy Reference Architecture that was designed and implemented. The new framework delivers a ground-breaking orchestration engine focused on optimizationof all passenger-handling operations directing flow management, thus combining all the complex, security-critical Border Control and Common Use solutions into a comprehensiveset of intelligent layers, where data can be shared among the different stakeholders in a privacy responsible manner. 

The Aruba Happy Flow Pilot Project started as a march to EU pre-clearance, but it’s a separate concept on its own. This 2-year pilot project has -the unique and visionary goal toestablish a process where a passenger departing from Aruba and intending to enter the EU-Schengen space is pre-cleared before take-off. In case a passenger does not fulfill the requirements needed to enter the EU or is unable to fly because of other safety concerns, the appropriate measures are immediately triggered and the respective authorities notifiedanticipatively.

What began as a concept on a tiny island in the middle of the Caribbean two years ago rapidlybecame an industry reference point in transforming the way passengers interact with airportsin a brand new way. As for now, the Happy Flow pilot has concluded, and resulted in a long lasting operation platform and a full-fledged system, thus allowing a seamless, without queues or stops, and paperless travel experience, unraveling tremendous opportunities in the air travel industry, making a happier journey for passengers.

“The success of this pilot project is thanks to the cooperation and commitment of all the keypartners who believed in the project from day 1. I thank and congratulate each and every onewho contributed and placed this small airport on the map as a leader in the aviationtechnology world,” concluded Mr. Fazio, AAA CEO.